In many ways, our recent trip to NYC was a textbook example of how not to visit the city: we didn’t attend any of the art and culture venues, we didn’t indulge in any of our favorite restaurants, don’t even mention shopping for new threads or staying out late nights listening to music and sipping whiskey.

But what we did manage to do was remedy an omission in our lives. We made the city Luca and Olin were born in - but had only read about in books during the long Covid sheltering - come alive before their eyes. They gaped at the Empire State Building towering over us, squinted their eyes at the sun glancing off the silver pinnacle of the Chrysler, saluted Lady Liberty as we sailed past on the Staten Island Ferry, climbed the stairs of the New York Public Library, crossed the Brooklyn Bridge in a yellow cab and lined up on the street for the freshest bagels on a chilly October morning.